


rest stop

by safestorms



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 11:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18622399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/safestorms/pseuds/safestorms
Summary: Written for the prompt "Kyle/Liz, pre-series; bittersweet encounter outside of Roswell" in the Less Seen Roswell New Mexico Ficathon





	rest stop

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laufire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laufire/gifts).



> Written for the [ Less Seen Roswell New Mexico Ficathon ](https://starbright-star.livejournal.com/7892.html?thread=53716#t53716)
> 
> Thanks so much to the wonderful people who looked over this fic for me, gave me support and encouragement and helped give feedback/advice/ideas on characterization. I'm endlessly grateful. All mistakes are mine.

It’s ironic that Liz bumps into Kyle in a tiny gas station in the middle of nowhere while she's moving her belongings between College number Two and Three. Gas stations, they say are like liminal spaces, the threshold between the familiar and the unknown. It’s a perfect fit for Liz’s current state of mind. She’s a woman in transit and transient, caught in-between, out of touch with the real world. According to scientific research, Liz knows, grief affects the human body by releasing cortisol which triggers the flight-or-fight response. Her running, she tells herself, is pure biology, her body's natural physiological response. 

Seeing Kyle here though feels like she’s gone beyond the liminal. It’s like she’s stepped back in time. It’s been years since she’s last seen him. Not since the night Rosa died right before she’d left Roswell behind without even a backward glance in the rearview mirror.

A memory rises unbidden, so fast it takes her over: her dad’s face haggard with grief, but also, Kyle standing there besides her sturdy as a rock, she, Liz, leaning in, sliding her fingers through his belt loops, an anchor in the storm.

*

“Liz!” he exclaims when they nearly bump into each other in the chips aisle, his arms overflowing with snacks. It’s not as weird as Liz imagines running into your ex would be, though it’s not like she’s spent much time thinking about how this particular scenario would take place. There’s not a hint of awkwardness on Kyle’s face, just delight written all over it.

“Kyle? What are you doing here?” There’s a slow burning warmth spreading through her belly. It’s like her body automatically associates being around him with the familiarity and comfort of home. But at the same time, it feels like the bottom’s dropped out of her stomach. Seeing Kyle brings everything back, like staring straight into the sun. Most days she tries to outrun its glare but days like today, she’s forced to look at it head on. 

If emotional scars could be seen on the surface of the skin like tattoos, hers would cover her whole body. She wields them like a shield. Her armor. That’s what Rosa taught her.  _ Rosa _ , she thinks, then squelches that thought because this is no place for conjuring ghosts.

Kyle’s friend looks like he wants to join in their conversation but Liz isn’t in the mood to make small talk with a random stranger tonight. Kyle, thank God, seems to recognize that and he motions to his friend to give them some space. “My frat brothers,” Kyle explains, tipping his head in the direction of his friend’s retreating back. “We’re doing the classic American rite of passage - the road trip. Just one more thing to cross off my bucket list. One last summer of freedom before med school.”

“Med school, huh?” Liz says. “I always knew you’d get there.”

Kyle smiles wryly. “Well, I’m no McDreamy, but I’m going to save some lives, just like my dad.”

Liz studies him thoughtfully. “You seem different, Kyle. Less...”

“Less of the jerk I was back in high school?” There’s a rueful smile flickering on Kyle’s face now. “Yeah. I’m not going to make excuses for what I did in high school, Liz. You were too good for me back then.”

“Adulthood looks good on you, Kyle Valenti.”

“Right back at you,” he says, gaze lingering on her. “I’d ask what you’ve been up to but your lack of social media presence makes me think that you don’t want to talk about that.”

Liz cracks a smile.“Right.”

“Listen, my buddies and I got some rooms at a motel down the road. Want to come back to mine and indulge in some crappy late night TV? You can’t say no to Oreos.” He waves the box tantalizingly in front of her face, that jerk. “It’ll be just like old times when we used to have movie marathons at your house.”

 Liz makes a grab for it. “My favorite! You remembered.”

“Well, I do have a mind like a steel trap. It’s hard to forget the time you got so freaked by  _ The Exorcist _ , you spat out the Oreos you were eating all over me. That memory unfortunately is still ingrained in my brain to this day. Haunts my sleep.”

Liz squeezes her eyes shut in mortification. “Ugh. That movie was gross and it still gives me the creeps. I was thirteen, Kyle! That Liz is long gone.”

“Are you sure about that?” he asks. He’s studying her now, gaze intense like he can see right through her. The question hits a little too close to home. The thing about childhood friends slash old high school boyfriends is that they know you like the back of their hand. They’ve seen too much. They know all the embarrassing things you did in high school. They’re familiar with a version of you that used to be, the fumbling teenage part of you that was you growing up. Liz suddenly aches for that lost self. It’s been a while since she’s stayed in one place long enough to have that kind of history with anyone.

“I hope she isn’t. I liked that Liz. She was smart and she had so much passion about science. About using that to do great things and I knew she had it in her.”

Liz shakes her head. “Yeah well, that Liz was also stupid enough to believe in happy endings. But thanks, Kyle.”

He smiles at her, soft. “Anytime.”

“Well,” she nods at the snacks in his arms. “This Liz is starving and could really use some of the food you’re holding right now…”

*

Outside in the freezing night air, she shoves her hands in her jacket pockets for warmth. Of course, she’d forgotten to pack her gloves.

Kyle turns to her, eyebrows creasing in a frown. “Liz, are you okay?” She has a feeling he isn’t just asking about her being cold.

In reply, she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. He tastes like the churro pancakes she used to have for breakfast, like nostalgia and lost innocence all at once but also like home. 

Someone pushes open the gas station door and she hears the radio, loud and clear, blasting out a song they’d used to dance to at the Crashdown. “Dance with me,” she says, holding a hand out to Kyle under the glowing gas station lights, brighter than any moon. Being around Kyle makes her feel more still than she has in years. Like just for tonight, she can stop running. All these years, miles and miles of road behind her, she’d been secretly afraid of her ghosts catching up with her. But here in this moment, she might just be able to let herself rest. Because there’s someone there to catch her, someone who knows the shape of those ghosts too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading. Any and all feedback is very much appreciated.


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